Factory

Among the many tasks faced by the international automotive industry in coming years is the need to further reduce CO2 emissions, not only in the vehicles on the road, but also in manufacturing those vehicles. An important variable in that is the weight of the vehicles. Promising avenues for achieving the desired CO2 reductions include new, natural, more lightweight materials, along with more intensive use of existing materials such as high-grade steel and aluminium and intelligent processing of these raw materials.

Unfortunately, the diversity of new materials and new combinations of existing materials (hybridization) leads to production challenges. Hybridization requires new processing, handling and compounding methodologies and technologies, while at the same time energy must be produced more efficiently. Another trend in the automotive industry is the every-growing personalization of vehicles, lot size: 1. To keep abreast of these development, or even anticipate them, we will have to tackle innovations together. Teamwork is key!